New Blog

To find out more about the wedding and our new life together go here:

mrandmrslyons.com

Sneak peek!

15 days to go!

The countdown

20 Days until we get married.

18 Days until my bachelorette pary!!

16 Days until my best friend and maid of honor lands on the east coast.

and the most relaxing countdown of them all...

27 Days until our cruise!

Way too busy.

It is down to the wire. Only about 25 more days until the wedding and I have been so busy. Recently I have finished my pomanders, table names, and made my hair comb.




What I am really looking forward to now is the bach. party with my moh back from Oregon, and the cruise!!!

Hello old friend

Well I havent posted an update in a while. Life is just busy. Way too busy. This past weekend however I had a second hair/makeup trial and it went great! Much, much better than the first one. I guess we will be driving to Worcester the morning of the wedding, which makes me a bit nervous.



I also made some wedding signs today. I screwed up completely on the games one, but oh well.



My stepdad was nice to make us the groomsmen gifts, which are wooden six packs. He had a few started when I went to visit this weekend.

We will be putting in each gms favorite beer (soda for the youngin's).

Engagement Pictures!

A few weeks ago at the end of June, Andy and I met up with Nikki our photographer to take some engagement pictures. It was a nice hot day even though we had been getting a ton of rain.
Well she put some pictures up on her blog and here they are! It was a great thing to wake up and see this morning.





I actually had to buy this book during school for O.chem. That class and book were terrible.




We went and visited Bethel, the dorm where we met and lucky for us it was open! So we snuck in (although i was freaking out we would get yelled at the whole time) and took some pictures.










It was so hot that day, and being under the bleachers was such a nice relief.


My absolute FAVORITE picture.


At our new blue football field, that they got back after we graduated. Andy and I will have to make it to an alumni game next year.






In other news, I had my dress fitting yesterday. We have to take it in about 2 inches on each side! I am so glad all my hard work is paying off.

Wedding funk

I've been in a planning funk lately. I don't really have the motivation to plan anymore, or make anything else. I'd rather the wedding be over with so I wasn't so stressed anymore. But with the help of my best friend and moh Amanda, I designed our seating cards.



Can't wait to put it all together the day of.

Invitations

It has been a few days since we went out the invites so I'm sure almost everyone has recieved theirs (except for a few people who had their addresses mixed up, grrr). I was visiting my new jersey family this past weekend and got rave reviews about them. It feels so good to hear that since I spent most of this year working on the design and the buying all the supplies to make them exactly how I wanted. Of course they aren't exactly how I wanted them. I could really use a new printer to make everything sharper and some pieces not crooked, but oh well.

So without further ado:
The front:


Opened:


Closer look at the inserts:



I love them. And for less than half the price of the inspiration i found, they are perfect.
Now on to all the other diy projects i have planned.

Invitations are out!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andy and I mailed our invitations out yesterday! The post office man kept saying how it was a lot of people in our little box. I will post pictures of the finished product as soon as I start getting some rsvps in the mail. I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

I can't wait to see those little green envelopes in our mailbox.

In other news....80 days left. Yep. 80. My to-do list is so long.

I still miss her.

Invitations

They are all done! Yes. Done. All of them. I am so excited about this. Whatever small living space we have, has been cleared of all things invites.
They will be hitting the mail sometime in the next two weeks.

I also finished my reserved seating signs. I just need a bit more ribbon and I will post some pictures of those.

I love these!

How cute are these?! I came upon these centerpieces on once wed and would kill to have these. Andy and I are debating on using this or going for our original idea which would be easier to make.

But still, these are calling my name.

Crazy

The invitations are driving me crazy.
All I have left to do is print the envelopes and rehearsal inserts.
I can't wait to be done.

One ring down

Andys wedding ring came in the mail today. Two days after I ordered it!! I can't believe how fast superiorweddingrings.com got it out to me. I love it. Andy does too. We were worried about the size I ordered but it fits great.
It is a titanium band, 6mm cut pipe fitting. I found this style ring from a customer at work. I liked the way it looked and he let me hold it and told me how much he liked how light the titanium is.
Now we just have to get mine.

The Photobooth

Even though this has become increasingly popular in the past year or more, I have played with the idea of having a photobooth since Andy and I started thinking marriage. I want a guestbook that is more than just people signing their names on two pages in a book that has about 10 pages. We definately won't have that many people at our wedding. So, instead I am planning on making a guestbook where people can draw, or write notes for us or if they want too, just sign their names. There will be spaces for pictures to go in after, of them at the wedding. Hopefully most of them would be from the photobooth.
I've talked to my photographer a bit about it, and it won't be an actual booth. I want to set up a space for the pictures to be taken. And what better place i think than the side of the barn! I can't wait. I really hope people use it and love it as much as we do. Now, I just need to find someone who will stand by and take the pictures.

Tissue Paper poms

If you are thinking about making these, be prepared for all the work. They take a long time to make, buuuut they look so good when they are finished.


I started off with all my supplies: 5' balls, tissue paper, wire, ribbon, glue gun and glue, and scissors.
Start by aligning all the sheets of paper so they are all even. Then cut the pieces into 5inch x 10inch pieces.



Then fold 4 sheets like you would for a fan, and fasten with a wire twisted around the middle. I found that if you cut the edges so they are round, the flowers look much better than when you leave the edges squared.



Slowly, start pulling up each layer, fluffing up the flower shape. When all are up try to tighten the pieces together. The more you put on a ball, the better they look.


Andy became an expert on this part, and has been helping me make the rest. Time goes by much faster when two people are working on them.
Add some ribbon in your desired length and ta-da! You're done.


Here are two of the finished ones. We still have about 4 to make.

Bridal Shower

So my bridal shower was this past saturday, and it was awesome! My MOH Amanda and my mom took off with what I have always pictured and did an awesome job. Thankfully the rain held off mostly until the end, but it was pretty cold all day.

The party was pink and girly with a bit of a cowboy theme thrown in. They added some ribbon for a veil on this hat.






These hats were lined up on our deck, and my bms kept joking around during the meal that strippers were coming and these were for them. They said my mom was freaking out cause Andy and his dad were around. They had driven us up from NY and stayed to help cook food before heading to a bar. My bms had me going a teensy bit.

We played a few games. Of course there was the wedding dress made of toilet paper, and then I was asked a few questions about Andy while opening presents. If I got one wrong I had to chew gum. Andy answered a few wrong purposely so I would have to chew. It wasn't very nice.


This is the key to having a good time with the games at showers.

The some of my step-dads family:


Some of Andys family:


My dads side:


My mom, myself, Tracey and Donna:


My awesome bms: We are going to have such an awesome time at the bach. party!


My MOHBFFFF Amanda. The best moh ill ever have. She came up a day early to help my mom shop, and put everything together.

RIP Chloe

(When we first got her. Looks like a totally different dog)

After 11 years of being the best dog I will ever have, Chloe passed away on friday night. I begged Mark and MOm for years to get her. I worked every angle. Asking everywhere we went. It took a long time to convince mark to say yes. And I still remember that day, at the little league feild when he finally said yes. I was shocked. After all that, we ended up picking her up at the pound and bringing her home to a unsuspecting mom. Thankfully she fell in love with her too.

Apparently starting on tuesday she stopped eating and was getting really tired. My parents brought her to the vet who told us she has diabetes, really low blood cell counts, an infection, and something in her stomach. She had surgery to remove a tumor before, so it was probably another one. They wanted to put her down that day, but my mom knew i would be coming home saturday and told them no so that I could be there.
Unfortunately no one knew how sick she really was. She ended up passing away friday night sometime between 930 and 11. I hate that I didn't go home friday instead. I wish i could be there with her so bad. I hate that she died alone, in the dining room instead of at the vets with us all there for her. I hate most of all that I didn't get to have one last day with her. She just didn't deserve to die alone.
At the beginning of April I went home for a dentist appt and was going to leave after it was over. As I was walking out the door i looked over at her and just had this feeling that I needed to stay longer. That this could be the last time I saw her. So I did. I stayed, and gave her more treats. She was always loving her treats. That is probably how she got the diabetes and all her weight! So I stayed and pet her and took some pictures and just had a feeling. Well I ended up being right. I'm glad I decided to go back and she her again. I'm hoping that her last memory of me is the treats.
It was so weird going home on saturday morning and not having her at the door. I could always count on her being the first person to greet me whenever I came home. Wagging tail and everything. Automatically rolling on her belly for a rub. Instead I went to say by one last time, and get her tag. It really sucks losing both your childhood pets in one year. And it sucks even more that you weren't there for either of them on their last day.
Some of my favorite memories of her are:
- having her follow me every morning when i got up to get ready for school. Always coming out from under my bed, except that day she had puppies in the middle of the night!
-The first day we brought her home and all her fur. It was flying everywhere in the car. I was sure that Mark would see it all and turn around to give her back. Luckily he didn't.
-She never ever barked! It was so rare for her to bark at all. Of course there were some times where she would bark outside and not stop but they were very far between.
-Having to bring her home one morning after she followed me to the bus stop before school. She was always, always getting out and going for a fun run around the lake. I think that was one of her favorite things. Second only to treats.
She was just always always there with me. Wherever I sat, she sat next to me. Putting up her head to be pet, or talking to me like she always did. There are so many memories of her, and I just cant name them all.

I hate that shes gone. It's not fair and it is going to take me a long time to get past it if I ever do. I am not good with death at all. I miss her a lot. Going home is never going to be the same. She should be there.

(After a bath. Starting her weight gain...)

(She loved my cousins! and they loved playing with her)

(Too early even for her to get a treat. I made her play with me before Andy and I left for california in 07)


And here is chloe in her younger days with her bff Kasey (sarahs dog who sadly passed away as well) They were such good dogs together.
I love her, and miss her. And hate myself for not being there.